About Eugène Delacroix

Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix was once described by the French poet Charles Baudelaire as “a volcanic crater artistically concealed beneath bouquets of flowers.” While drawing on Classical history and mythology—a favorite theme of Neoclassical artists—Delacroix was praised for his work’s spontaneity and power, vivid color, and pathos of movement. In Death of Sardanapalus (1827), figures and animals seem to writhe across the picture plane. Like Ingres, Delacroix was fascinated by the Orient, which includes present-day Turkey, Greece, and North Africa, visiting Morocco in 1832. Yet, instead of highlighting the seductive quality of his exotic subjects, Delacroix took an avid interest in the violence and cruelty in Oriental subjects. His lush palette and passionate brushwork would later greatly influence the development of both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism